Mike is a retired stock broker, and now published author of Gold Rush!. In addition, he is a freelance writer specializing in real estate, personal finance and home decor now writing from San Miguel, Mexico.

Entries Tagged as ''

“This is by no means an exoneration of Hillary’s campaign,” Paul told NewsMax. “In fact. it’s an indictment of her campaign.”

…snip…

“This vindicates my civil suit,” Paul said. “It gives me corroboration of all the major allegations in the civil suit. The civil suit is more important now than ever as the only way to get Hillary under oath.”

U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints near the Mexican border are essential in stopping the flow of illegal aliens and drugs into America, say law-enforcement authorities, but permanent checkpoints in southern Arizona are not allowed.

Rep. Jim Kolbe, Arizona Republican, senior member of the House Appropriations Committee,

has vigorously argued that permanent checkpoints are not the best use of available Border Patrol resources, saying: “If it’s permanent, then everyone knows where the checkpoint is and they just go around it.”

Isn’t Arizona lucky. Not only does it have have Sen. John McCain, but Rep. Kolbe, as well, both Republicans.

Mover Mike will be reading and reviewing the new book Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine (World Ahead Publishing, $25.95, ISBN 0974670138), author Candice E. Jackson.

Bill Clinton wrote a a bestseller titled My Life; over 1000 pages. Their Lives is in part about the missing chapters that deal with Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky, and Juanita Broaddrick. It is, also, about being a liberal misogynist. Jackson defines “liberal misogynist” as a person who supports women’s rights politically yet repeatedly mistreats women personally.

Candace Jackson is a libertarian feminist and an attorney. She graduated from Stanford and Pepperdine Law School and has worked for Judicial Watch. Jackson interviewed the seven women, and may have learned more than has been generally available in the press. Although, I have followed these women closely since there stories became public, I wasn’t struck by too much that was new. The pattern in each case seemed to be denial of the woman’s claim, trashing the woman’s reputation, failing that, intimidation.

What did strike me as new, was her analysis of modern liberalism, which can help us all understand politics better. She has identified seven tenets of liberalism. Here are the first two and you can read the book for the next five: 1. In modern liberalism, political goals justify any political means to achieve them.You can think of gender equality and affirmative action. Which leads to the “greater good theory”, namely if any harm “occurs in the pursuit of those two goals, it’s worth the suffering…for the greater good.”2. Modern liberalism relies on intermediaries to take care of the unpleasant tasks of enforcing the means to their political ends.

Most liberals aren’t outright socialists demanding government ownership of the economy, but they use legislation and regulation to establish nearly-plenary government control over the economy.

I think the fundamental lesson from the book is that any political philosophy, including liberalism, to the extent that it aligns itself with force to achieve its goals, is a danger to our free choice. It seems the press only wants to scare us all only about the Republicans and the Patriot Act.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Hillary Clinton could be the Democratic candidate for President and is more liberal than Bill Clinton. She is the one person who could have exercised restraint on Bill Clinton, but instead supported his misogyny, and she could turn out worse for us than he. Supporting Hillary Clinton, as much as you want a woman president, is a slap in the face to all women and the goal of gender equality.

From Reuter’s, Non-Mexican immigrants swamp Texas border cityThe number of illegal immigrants from Central America and Brazil caught crossing into this Texas border city (Eagle Pass) jumped threefold in the past year as they rush to exploit a legal loophole, U.S. authorities said.

The U.S. Border Patrol has nabbed 15,195 non-Mexican migrants crossing over the Rio Bravo around Eagle Pass in the past eight months, a rise of almost 240 percent on the same period last year, officials said on Monday.

I’m Back! Bev and I spent the Memorial Day weekend with her Mom and Dad, sister and two brothers and some of their families in a four bedroom house perched above the Pacific in Manzanita. We ate, laughed, ate, walked on the beach, ate, hot-tubbed, ate and drank. We walked into Manzanita to make reservations at the seafood restaurant and paused at a Friends of the Library book sale. Ever since I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I have wanted to see pictures of Barcelona. I found a little book, Spain, published by Panorama-Books, 6 3/4 square by 1/4 inch, that contains 30 color plates. Just exactly what I was looking for.

I also found a book written and autographed by William Langewiesche: Cutting for Sign, One man’s journey along the US-Mexican border, published in 1993. In some places the wall that separates the two coutries is a man made wall that funnels people and trade, and is relatively easy to control; but mostly it is a sieve, and the border patrol can be overwhelmed. I read about Tecate, Mexicali, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez and Ojinaga that swell with disease up against the border. I read about the desparate struggle for existence on the wages paid in the maquiladoras. And, I read about smuggling, of people and drugs. This book was written in 1993. I kept thinking has anything changed? Is the US any better 12 years later at stemming the flow? Has the poverty and pollution on the Mexican side gotten better or worse? After reading this book, I am not optomistic.

WorldNetDaily has a story Mexican commandos new threat on border. It seems, to help fight the drug war on the US/Mexico border, the US trained an elite group of Mexican commandos. Now those commandos, now called Los Zetas, have switched sides and are working for the drug smugglers.

Using the commando training, Los Zetas are known to be extremely violent and have been blamed for an outbreak of violence along the Mexican border.

There are reports of the commandos making cross-border runs into U.S. territory in military-style vehicles, armed with automatic weapons.

Do we as the providers of the money to fight the drug war, have any idea of the amount of money spent? Do we have any evidence that the war to keep drugs out of the US is working? Do we as the providers of the money have a right to demand accountability? I suspect the money has been wasted! I think it’s time to consider legalization, because it’s about the money, ours and the profits that are made by the drug runners.

Rob Kirby writes in The Anatomy of a Fictional Hedge Fund Collapse about a dream (nightmare) that in part involves Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) which went bust in 1998 and some say, almost brought the financial system down. In part of the article Kirby refers to a report NOT FREE, NOT FAIR: The Long Term Manipulation of the Gold Price by John Embry and Andrew Hepburn of Sprott Asset Management. According to Embry and Hepburn there were

claims that gold market was being actively managed. A few large bullion dealers consistently appeared as strong sellers on the COMEX and stopped promising rallies dead in their tracks. Word emerged that LTCM was short approximately 400 tonnes of gold. Covering this position wouyld have sent gold soaring, harming the balance sheets of LTCM and other significant gold shorts.

For those who haven’t followed the gold marjket, a little history. Gold peaked in the 70’s at $850 to $900 per ounce, and had been in a bear market ever since. Oh there had been rallies in those 25 years, but basically it was down and down, until it bottomed in 1999 at $250 per ounce. Gold doesn’t pay any interest. Some bright guy or gal got the terrific idea of borrowing the gold from the central banks or leasing it (carry-trade), and presto the central banks would get some income. The borrowers sold the gold and invested the money elsewhere, and probably got huge bonuses for their idea. Where’s the risk? Gold is a dead investment. It always goes down. Central Banks had 30,000 tonnes of gold.

After languishing near $260 an ounce, gold awoke in dramatic fashion following the September 1999 Washington Agreement On Gold. 15 European central banks agreed to limit gold sales over 5 years and curtail lending activities. The price exploded, climbing almost $80 in two weeks as panicked shorts rushed to cover. The gold “carry-trade” had turned dangerously unprofitable.

It is alleged: 1. that the Central Banks intervened in the Gold Market to prevent a gold derivative crisis brought on by LTCM and the Washinton Agreement2. that the Central Banks had loaned out gold far in excess of annual production.3. that LTCM was short 300-400 tonnes of gold4. that the announced gold sales of England were not really sold into the market, but a political decision to manage the price of gold. See, if I lease something to you and you sell it and then I want it back, you have to buy a replacement to satisfy me. What if it isn’t available anymore or it is available but at double or triple the price. The leasee or borrower is in deep trouble.

Back to Rob Kirby’s nightmare. What if the central banks leased 15,000 tonnes of their 30,000 tonnes, and the leasee’s sold it. The price of gold has moved from $250 to $420. What if the Central banks have managed the price by selling physical gold and used derivatives, all to keep the price down. I have posted before that there is a relationship between oil and gold of 15:1. What if the relationship reasserts itself back to 15:1. Gold is then $765! Somebody is in big trouble. This time it’s not a short position of 300-400 ounces, it’s 15,000 tonnes. That’s the nightmare of Rob Kirby.

Pundita has an interesting post about Kennedy-McCain immigration bill? Now, first off if McCain is attached to it, that lowers the quality of the bill right off the bat! McCain-Feingold? McCain and 14 Senators bend over regarding the filibuster. Pundita says the bill “asks for studies of the security situation” and goes on to say

The United States is seeing a resurgence of infectious diseases that were wiped out in this country. The US is now on the verge of a leprosy epidemic. Not only leprosy but also tuberculosis, polio, and several other serious diseases are threatening the American population and with attendant costs to industry and families, not to mention “the taxpayer.

The path for reintroducing ‘extinct’ diseases to the US is via foreign visitors of all kinds–tourists, students, immigrants both legal and illegal, and so on. The question is how to set up health screening for the legal visitors, including temporary guest workers. This task should not be left to the US companies employing temporary workers. Nor should it be left to the companies that have come to depend on illegal workers. We need the screening program in place first, before making any legislation with regard to updating visa programs.

Ideally, we should quarantine all immigrants for some number of days, just like we did with astronauts when they returned from space. After all, with astronauts it was the future health of the world, here it is the health of the US. We show no inclination to round all of them up, let alone quarantine them. But, with a million illegals per year, we have plenty of time to study the situation. Maybe, as Pundita suggests, there are too many financial interests at stake to give a damn. Pundita, cites one–the real estate industry. I’ll cite others. Those coming here to make 10 times what they could make in Mexico, will be needing banking services, cars, TV’s, food and clothing and the Feds get workers paying into Social Security. And…the politicians get voters.

In todays Oregonian there’s a column by Steve Duin, The downtown stations slowly run out of gas. Duin writes that the Chevron station on SW Broadway and Columbia is closing on the last day of May. The 1/3 acre sold for $3 Million, probably, he says, for retail-residential. After the close, there will only be two gas stations in the downtown core, the 76 Station on SW 4th and Burnside and the 76 Station on SW 22nd and Burnside. Can you imagine being down town with the gauge on empty?

I thought Duin’s article was interesting, because there seems to be a dearth of gas stations, when you need one. In December of ’04 Bev and I were on our way to the airport. We were to meet friends for dinner at the ——, at 6:30, stay the night there at the airport and fly out the next morning for Cabo. It was a good deal, we thought, for the parking was free, secure, and the car would be waiting for us when we returned.

My job was to pick up Bev at home on the way to the airport. Well, I was running late working at the store for us. I had planned to get gas on the way, but Bev was nervous about being late for dinner so I skipped it and said I would wait until we got back. After, a great trip to Cabo where I tried to buy a timeshare (Bev was the holdout…again!), we got to the car about midnight, started the car and the little yellow light came on. We needed gas!

There used to be a Chevron at the airport, but it’s torn down. I knew there would be no stations on the freeway home, so I decided to drive south on 82nd. Now you married guys know the trouble I’m in, and if we run out three miles from home at midnight, I will never hear the end of it. I discovered there are no stations all the way to Sandy Blvd. At Sandy I paused. Should I turn East away from home for the chance of gas or turn West? I chose to turn toward home. Still, I’m getting heat from Bev. We live off of 33rd. I see 72nd – no gas. 60th and no gas! Finally a station on 53rd and Sandy and we limp in and exhale. “See”, I said, ” I told you to relax and not to worry.” (Ladies, that’s what all men say, right?)

I went back to 82nd and Sandy, some days later, wondering if I would have worried less if I had turned East. Nope! It was 2 1/2 miles until I saw a station. On the way home today, I didn’t need gas and there are two stations at 33rd and NE Broadway. I think they cluster the stations where the need is low.

trading

Warning: mysql_real_escape_string() [function.mysql-real-escape-string]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysqld.sock' (2) in /homepages/7/d182093141/htdocs/movermike/wp-content/plugins/yolink-search/yolink-search.php on line 2268

Warning: mysql_real_escape_string() [function.mysql-real-escape-string]: A link to the server could not be established in /homepages/7/d182093141/htdocs/movermike/wp-content/plugins/yolink-search/yolink-search.php on line 2268